When a passenger operates operating means such as an operation lever provided in a seatback of a front seat, a walk-in apparatus for a vehicle seat reclines the seatback of the front seat forward, and releases the operation of a lock mechanism of a seat slide apparatus at the same time. A seat cushion slides forward, and thus the passenger can get in and out a rear seat.
A lock release link of the lock mechanism of the seat slide apparatus is turned via a connection unit such as a cable which is pulled in conjunction with a turning operation of the operation lever, and a slide lock state is released according to the turning of the lock release link.
JP 2010-52528A (Reference 1) discloses a walk-in apparatus that is capable of releasing the operation of a lock mechanism by reclining a seatback of a vehicle seat forward, and is capable of sliding the seatback forward together with a seat cushion.
When slide locking is released, if a passenger further turns the operation lever in the same direction in a state where the lock release link has reached a limit of turning, an excessive pulling force is applied to the cable in the above-described walk-in apparatus. Thereupon, elongation or breakage of the cable may occur, thereby causing trouble in releasing the slide locking.
The walk-in apparatus disclosed in Reference 1 does not have a configuration in which elongation or breakage of the cable, which turns the slide lock release link, is prevented.